Trial opens in case of death of 3-year-old

November 5, 2013

MARTINSBURG - Jurors heard opening statements Monday in the trial of a Maryland woman indicted on abuse and neglect charges in connection with the death a 3-year-old child in Martinsburg last year.

Jasmine K. Dawkins, 24, of Waldorf, Md., was indicted by a Berkeley County grand jury in May 2012 on one count of death of a child by a parent, guardian or custodian by child abuse; two counts of gross child neglect creating a substantial risk of serious bodily injury; and one count of presenting false information regarding a child's injuries.

The child, Kaiwon Connelly, was flown to Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., in critical condition on Dec. 31, 2011, and was pronounced dead the next day from alleged abuse-related injuries.

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The child's father, James Mauldin, 21, of Martinsburg, will be tried separately Jan. 7 on similar child abuse and neglect charges.

Prosecutors accuse Dawkins, who is not the biological mother of the child, of failing to report the abuse to authorities, lying to police about how the child received his injuries and failing to seek medical attention for the boy.

Berkeley County Prosecutor Pamela Games-Neely told the jury that on Dec. 31, 2011, medics responded to Mauldin's apartment in the Joshua Gardens apartment complex in Martinsburg for a call reporting a child in respiratory distress.

Medics found the child, who wasn't breathing and was in full cardiac arrest, on a towel in the bathroom. They were allegedly told by Mauldin and Dawkins that the child was eating when he fell from a chair and hit a table.

The child was taken to Berkeley Medical Center where medical personnel worked for 45 minutes to try keep him alive. While the child was being treated, doctors discovered he was suffering from massive head trauma and brain hemorrhaging, Games-Neely said.

Physicians also found marks and bruises on the child's body and later, after they removed his clothing, burn marks on his lower body and the back part of his thighs.

The child was pronounced dead at 10:55 a.m. the next morning.

Prior to his death, the child has been living with Mauldin and Dawkins at their apartment since Dec. 10, 2011.

The defendants initially blamed the child's burn marks on the child's biological mother, which Games-Neely said turned out to be a lie.

An investigation found the child was forced to squat above a burning-hot pan as punishment.

The prosecutor said the jury will also hear evidence that Dawkins witnessed Mauldin punch the child repeatedly in the face prior to his death and that she saw the child stagger and repeatedly fall after the incident. She also allegedly told investigators she saw the child bleeding from the ear prior to his death.

"Did she call an ambulance? Did she call 911? ... Not until he expired on her bathroom floor is that call ever made," Games Neely said.

The defendant's attorney, Sherman L. Lambert, told jurors that the evidence will show that Dawkins didn't cause the child's injuries and the reason why she failed to report the abuse to authorities was because she was held captive for several days by Mauldin, whom he alleged repeatedly abused and beat his client to the point that she was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

"Why would anybody in their right mind fail to report this? The answer is she was not in her right mind. She was scared to death," Lambert said.

At one point, Lambert asked his client, an extremely short woman weighing only 86 pounds, to stand and face the jury. He described her as a "gentle soul" forced to live in an environment of constant fear while she cared for two young children.. The second child who was living in the apartment was her 4-month-old son, who was fathered by Mauldin but was not found to be abused.

"You have a 24-year-old girl who is in the clutches of a mad man ... The only thing she wanted to do was to get out of there with her youngest son," Lambert said.

Lambert alleged that when his client packed her bags and tried to leave, Mauldin held her captive and began sleeping on the steps in front of the apartment's front door to prevent her from escaping.

"The prosecutor has the responsibility to prove this case beyond a reasonable doubt. What the evidence in this case is going to show you is that is not possible," Lambert said.